Fur trader.
Born at York Factory, the son of James Isham and a Native woman, he was sent to England to be educated. He entered apprenticeship to the Hudson's Bay Company in 1766, and by 1774 was sent inland. He was trading at Cumberland House by 1775-76. He was one of the few inlanders with any skills at canoeing, and he worked as canoeman and interpreter through the 1780s. In 1790 he became master at Swan River, the first Hudson Bay native to rise from the ranks into even a minor officership. In 1812 he served as interpreter for Miles Macdonell at Red River.
See also:
Charles Thomas Isham, Dictionary of Canadian Biography V, 450-51.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 7 September 2012
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